Best Bets: Databases

Note: The Dashboard (see right column) searches across all databases. I recommend it as a starting place. For more search control using field codes and databases thesaurus, search the databases one at a time.

StatistaA statistics portal that provides data on over 80,000 topics from more than 10,000 different sources. The content is purely aggregated statistics, geared towards business and marketing statistical needs, with a focus on current awareness. Easy-to-use infographics and tables are available for download as images to insert into presentations.

Hoover's Company Records - In-depth RecordsThe Hoover's Company Records - In-Depth Records Database contains information for more than 40,000 major public and private companies worldwide. In-Depth Records include overviews and histories, up to 10 years of key financial and employment data, lists of products and key competitors, names of key officers, addresses, and phone and fax numbers.

Prendismo Video Clip Collection16,000 video clips from 750 experts. These 2-minute video clips cover 200 business topics, such as ethics, finance, innovation, sales, strategy, women, and leadership. Provided by the Ithaca College School of Business. No off-campus access. There is a fee to download a clip.

Communications

Communication Source Top index to the field of communications. Trade and scholarly. EBSCO interface.

Charity NavigatorAn independent charity evaluator. Provides evaluative information about the financial health of over 5,300 of America's largest charities.

GuideStar.orgSearchable database of the programs and finances of more than 1.7 million IRS-recognized nonprofits and over 3.3 million people who work in the nonprofit sector. Source for 990 forms; nonprofits are required to file a 990 revenue statement with the IRS. Use GuideStar to screen for nonprofits.

American Advertising Federation (AAF)Organization that supports the profession through news, education, events, and advocacy. Includes over 200 student chapters. To celebrate excellence, AAF has an Advertising Hall of Fame and gives the ADDY award s amongst other prizes and showcases.

Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau (CAB)Cable network profiles, schedules, and other information. Weekly ratings reports provide a summary of the past week's primetime and total day ratings audience data across various viewing sources.

Direct Marketing Association (DMA)Organization of marketing professionals that provides education, advocacy and networking opportunities to its members. DMA also publishes reports based on proprietary research.

Interactive Advertising Bureau (iab)Comprised of more than 460 media & tech companies that sell online advertising, the IAB is a trade group that promotes the growth interative advertising. They develop standards and lobby for the industry in Washington, D.C. See the IAB's Member Code of Conduct.

International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS)Founded in 1998 to drive creativity on the Internet. The organization is diverse including industry leaders in online advertising, film, television, games, and mobile. The Webby Awards honor top websites in numerous industry and media categories every year.

Digital Content NextTrade association, "dedicated to representing high-quality online content providers before the advertising community, the press, the government and the public." Formerly known as the Online Publishers Association.

Paley Center for Media With Museums in both Los Angeles and New York City, the Paley Center for Media preserves and promotes radio, television and advertising history through events, screenings, lectures, and workshops. They collect programming, not artifacts. Formerly known as The Museum of Television & Radio. Paley Center on YouTube.

PromaxBDAInternational association for entertainment marketing professionals. Promax, an organization of marketers working in broadcasting, combined with the Broadcast Design Association (BDA) in 1997. They provide conferences and events to members.

Radio Advertising BureauProvides education, research and advocacy for the radio industry. It is the sales and marketing arm of the radio industry.

Council for Research Excellence (CRE)Examines the knowledge and practice of audience research method for advertisers, agencies, and other media professionals. The Council includes Nielsen Media Research and its clients. Documentation is available under the Committees tab.

NARC Online ArchivesCase reports of the National Advertising Division (NAD), Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), National Advertising Review Board (NARB), and the Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program (ERSP). NOTE: See the reference desk; A reference librarian will sign you in to access the fulltext of the cases.

Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral AdvertisingThe Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) created a self-regulatory program for Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA). The DAA includes: the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the American Advertising Federation, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and the Network Advertising Initiative.

TTB.govAlcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, U.S. Dept. of the Treasury. Includes links to relevant CFR regulations (generally found in 27 CFR).

Market Research, Target Markets, Media Plans

Databases:

Simmons OneViewSimmons OneView(formerly Simmons Choices3) provides access to U.S. adult (18+) consumer data on product and brand usage, spending behavior, media usage/habits, and more. It can be used to create custom reports which analyze demographic and/or psychographic characteristics of product users and their media behavior. It allows cross tabulation of hundreds of consumer product categories and usage data for over 8,000 brands, inclusive consumer media habits, diverse demographic categories and psychographic (attitudinal and lifestyle) profiles. It consists of three parts: National Consumer Study (NCS), National Hispanic Consumer Study (NHCS) and New Media. Most recent data available is at least two years old. Our license allows for five simultaneous users.

SRDS Media SolutionsAccess to publications with information about advertising rates and deadlines, editorial or programming content, circulation, links to online media kits, Web sites, audit statements, and other basic information for a variety of advertising media: radio, business magazines, consumer magazines, direct mailings, out-of-home (billboards, airports, etc.) and interactive (Internet). This source is designed for the media buyer, but also is helpful for identifying target audiences. The Digital Media listings contain website metrics by Compete, Doubleclick Ad Planner (Google) and Nielsen NetView when available.

Polling the NationsA compilation of public opinion surveys, containing the full text of questions and responses from 14,000 surveys from 1986 to the present in the United States and more than 80 other countries. Each record includes the polling organization responsible for the poll, the sample size and the date the poll was released.

Sports MarketingAnnual market research report available from Richard Miller & Associates available through SPORTDiscus. Includes some television viewing statistics.

Consumer ReportsThe current issue is available from 01/01/1988 to present via LexisNexis (no images or graphs).The current year is available in paper in the library. Other databases have access but may have an embargo (they may lack access to current issues in fulltext).

Center for Media ResearchA MediaPost Communications service for market planners and advertisers. The site alerts professionals of current research by a variety of agencies. Users can sign up for alerts.

Alexa: the web information companyAlexa provides data such as rankings on websites. Users can insert a URL and click "Lookup Sites" to view data. The "Top Sites" tab has three viewing tabs: Global, By Country, and By Category.

American FactFinder Current population, housing, economic, and geographic data from the US Census Bureau. Includes the Annual Survey of Manufactures, Economic Census, Current Population Estimates, Business Patterns, and American Community Surveys. The Guided Search walks you through each step in picking the data and/or geographies
you want to download.

The Advertising Association / WarcUK companies that provides the database called Expenditure Report. The report covers advertising expenditure data going back to 1982 in addition to 2 years of projections. IC Library does not subscribe but some data is mentioned in the press release.

Alliance for Audited MediaOrganization that audits circulation statistics and generates reports to assist advertisers and publishers with media sales. Formerly known as the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Some free reports are available.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Department of LaborDetailed releases of a wide variety of economic statistics including: Consumer Price Index (CPI), productivity, consumer spending, wages and earnings, employment/unemployement, inflation among others. They Publish the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE), a survey of American buying habits (spending, earnings, etc.) as well as The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) that measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities.

Cornell Program on Applied Demographics (PAD)PAD works with the New York Statistical Information System (NYsis), Regional Economic Development, and Consumer Demographics and Market Strategies (CDMS). Contact information can be found here. Cornell is home to a U.S. Census Research Data Center (RDC). It is located at the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research (CISER).

EDGAR Database (Securities and Exchange Commission)Official SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) documents such as Form 10-K, 10-Q, Proxy statements, registration statements, and merger and acquisition documents.*Be sure to look at the DEF14A (Proxy) statements and the Management Discussion and Analysis sections of Form 10-k, Form 10-Q for insights into management.

NationMasterA central data source and handy way to graphically compare nations. NationMaster is a compilation of data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD. Use the search form to generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics.

NielsenMeasures audiences for television and other media markets. Claritas SiteReports provides U.S. demographic data.

SEC InfoSecurities Information from the SEC EDGAR database. Search by Name, Industry, Business, SIC Code, Area Code,Topic, CIK, Accession Number, File Number, Date, ZIP. You may have to join but membership is free.

Trendwatching.comTRENDWATCHING.COM and its 3,000+ trendspotters scan the US, Canada, European Union, Japan, South Korea, India, South Africa, Australia, Brazil and 50 other nations & regions for hot, emerging consumer trends and related new business ideas. Free monthly bulletin briefings are archived back to first issue (November 2002).

TV By the Numbers - Zap2itBlog by Bill Gorman and Robert Seidman that collects and explores TV ratings data. They merged with zap2it.

TVtracker.comCompany that researches competitive television development and programming. Some information is members only but there is a "Free Area".

Media research companies (a selection. note: many market research reports are priced out of range for the academy; you can sometimes read executive reports for general trends; Cornell subscribes to MINTEL):

BIA KelseyCompany specializing in supplying local media data to clients.

General SentimentAnalyzes consumer sentiment on the internet and though social media outlets. Products and services include: Media Measurement Dashboard, Custom Reporting, Syndicated Reporting, and API.

Q ScoresThis company measures the consumer appeal of personalities, products, characters, licensed properties, programs and brands. The Q Score is a "measure of likeability" that predicts consumer involvement. Data is sold to advertisement and PR firms amongst others.

AdSlogansAdSlogan.com, a UK company, posted materials for students and educators such as SloganMaker, Sloganalysis, Brand Categories, & the Advertising Slogan Hall of Fame (the best ads of the past 100 years). TV ads can be viewed in full. Note: this page is no longer updated as of 2006 but is still useful

Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY)Part of the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, CAMY. "monitors the marketing practices of the alcohol industry to focus attention and action on industry practices that jeopardize the health and safety of America's youth."

Ad*AccessFrom Duke University Library's J.W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History, this database contains 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. & Canadian newspapers and magazines from 1911-1955. Main subject areas include: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II. Ads can be searched or browsed.

Ad CouncilContains public service announcements on social issues. The website divides the campaigns into Community, Education and Health Safety issues. Video and audio files are available; they
require a Windows Media Player plugin.

Advertising Icon MuseumSearch the toy icons of the online version of the museum to find out some of the history of the images including: Mr. Peanut, Tony the Tiger, and the Energizer Bunny.

All-American Ads NC988.5 .A1 Book series that compiles ads across decades.

Clio AwardsSite of the advertising award festival. The Clio Archive page indexes the best in global advertising back to 1960; register through the website prior to searching. Search the library's catalog for "Clio Awards" as a subject to access fulltext of award winners.

Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC): ArchivesLocated in Chicago, the MBC provides publications, events, a searchable archive, and a Radio Hall of Fame to preserve and protect the history of radio and television. MBC's archives includes television and radio programming, commercials and images. Users must register for a free account. Check the Digital File Available box to retrieve fulltext. NOTE: the archives server is currently not working; MBC is working on it and it should be fixed by Fall 2013.

IDEAllianceThe International Digital Enterprise Alliance is a non-profit organization that creates standards and best practices for the delivery of multimedia content.

Information AestheticsBlog of the intersection between creative design and information visualization. One especially good example is "5 years of Infosthetics": http://moritz.stefaner.eu/projects/5yrs-infosthetics/

International Graphic Arts Education Association (IGAEA) From the website: "The International Graphic Arts Education Association (IGAEA) is an association of educators in partnership with industry, dedicated to sharing theories, principles, techniques and processes relating to graphic communications and imaging technology." They publish the Visual Communications Journal.

Logo Design LoveBlog devoted to logos by David Airey, a self-employed graphic designer.

LexisNexis: Business information

To search for news on your company or industry, they recommend, "..., use the Advanced Options section of the main search form. There, use the "Add Index Terms" feature to access the SmartIndexing terms for industries and specific companies. Using index terms is far more accurate than doing a free text search on the company name. In the People index, you will find terms for many high-profile corporate executives, allowing you to search for stories on them as well."

Google News Alerts

Run a search in Google News. Consider using Google Search Operators to refine your search. After searching, scroll down. On the bottom right of the screen click on Create Alert. Under "show options" you can set some limiters.